Sierra Leone Farmers Evicted for Sugarcane Biofuel Plantationsby Jennifer Kennedy, CorpWatch BlogMarch 5th, 2013Addax Bioenergy, a Swiss energy company, is jeopardizing the livelihoods of thousands of subsistence farmers in order to export ethanol made from sugarcane grown in Sierra Leone, according to the Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food and Brot Für Alle, an NGO based in Switzerland.

Sweet Nothing: UK Food Giant Avoids Taxes on Zambia Sugarby Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogFebruary 15th, 2013Associated British Foods (ABF), a UK company that makes Silver Spoon sugar, pays almost no taxes on its profitable Zambian sugar subsidiary, according to a new ActionAid report. The authors allege ABF has avoided estimated taxes of $27 million since 2007, enough to put 48,000 Zambian children in school.

Nestlé Found Guilty of Spying on Swiss Activistsby Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogJanuary 30th, 2013Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, has been found guilty of spying on Swiss activists in 2003 with the help of Securitas, a private security company. Jean-Luc Genillard, president of the Lausanne civil court, told the two companies to pay $3,267.55 to each of nine victims.

Argentine Farm Sales Raise Questions of Land Speculation By Sorosby Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogJanuary 15th, 2013Hedge fund billionaire George Soros is making a killing buying and selling farmland in South America after converting them to biofuel production. While this has caused the land prices to increase dramatically, the ecological impact is questionable.

Agribusiness Buys California Votesby Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogNovember 6th, 2012Big corporations bankrolled candidates for the 2012 elections in both the Democratic and Republican parties and bought their votes lock, stock and barrel, contributing over $2 billion out of the $6 billion spent this year. The biggest impact was on a California battle to require labeling of genetically altered products.

Starbucks: Espresso for Investors, Watery Americano in UK Taxesby Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogOctober 26th, 2012Starbucks, the Seattle-based international coffee chain, has been accused of tax avoidance in the UK. Between 1998 and 2011 the company has made £3 billion in sales but paid out just £8.6 million in taxes on sales from its 735 stores in the country.

Cambodian Activists Call for International Sugar Boycottby Puck Lo, CorpWatch BlogSeptember 11th, 2012Human rights monitoring groups and Cambodian activists are calling for an international boycott of Tate & Lyle and Domino Sugar, who do business with sugar suppliers accused of participating in government-sanctioned land grabs and illegal evictions throughout rural Cambodia.

Iowa Company Linked to Refugee Abuses In Tanzaniaby Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogJuly 10th, 2012AgriSol, an Iowa company, has been linked to plans to evict 160,000 Burundian refugees from Katumba and Mishamo in western Tanzania, according to “Lives on Hold,” a new report by the Oakland Institute.

Monsanto Faces $7.5 Billion Payout to Brazilian Farmersby Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero, CorpWatch BlogJune 28th, 2012Monsanto, the largest seed corporation in the world, has long dealt out severe legal sanctions against farmers it suspects of "pirating" its seed. Now farmers in Brazil have turned the tables on the company which may have to pay out $7.5 billion.

Beef from Brazil: JBS Faces Allegations of Amazon Deforestationby Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogJune 6th, 2012The Xavante tribe in western Brazil and the Parakana tribe in the north-east are separated by a thousand miles of the Amazon basin but they face a common threat: the sprawling global beef export empire controlled by the Batista family from the state of Goiás.

Coffee Colonialism: Olam Plantation Displaces Lao Farmersby Beaumont Smith, Special to CorpWatchJune 4th, 2012Olam International, a Singapore based multinational, is growing coffee for export in Paksong, southern Laos. The land for the plantation was seized by Sonesay Siphandone, the district governor, from the upland Nha Huen/Yahern community who have been left without food to eat.

Budweiser's Buddies in Brusselsby Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogMay 16th, 2012Jean-Luc Dehaene, a Member of the European Parliament from Belgium, recently accepted shares worth $4.2 million in the company that makes Budweiser and Stella Artois. What’s remarkable is that he forgot to mention this as a potential conflict of interest.

Middle Eastern Investors “Grab” Sudan Farmlandby Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogApril 30th, 2012Dalla Al Baraka, a major Saudi conglomerate, has acquired two million acres of farmland in eastern Sudan, to produce food for export. While the investors are hoping to wean Saudi Arabia off imports from South America, such agreements have also caused concern among local Sudanese farmers.

Lobbyists Pose Conflicts of Interest At European Food Agency by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogApril 19th, 2012Should lobbyists for biotech and food companies make the rules on what kind of food you have in your kitchen? Meet Mella Frewen, Suzy Renckens and Harry Kuiper: Three examples of how the industries take advantage of the European Food Safety Agency(EFSA) failure to properly regulate conflicts of interest.

Greenwashing Walmart
by Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogApril 18th, 2012Is Walmart going green? Mike Duke, the company’s CEO, says in a new 126 page report that the company is becoming more sustainable and responsible while “building meaningful, long-term change.” Activists disagree. Walmart’s “environmental impact has only grown over the last seven years” they say in a counter-report.

Chiquita Banana To Face Colombia Torture Claimby Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogMarch 30th, 2012Chiquita, the global banana producer, was ordered to face a federal court over their role in paying off right wing death squads in Colombia that are alleged to have used “random and targeted violence” against villagers in exchange for financial assistance and access to Chiquita’s private port.

Unsticking Food Lobbyists in Europeby Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogMarch 6th, 2012The European Food Safety Authority has approved new rules that will ban industry experts from serving on EFSA scientific panels related to their work. Corporate Europe Observatory says the rules are still not strong enough

Thorny Business: Ethiopian Rose Exports To Europeby Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch BlogMarch 5th, 2012Karuturi Global and Saudi Star have leased thousands of hectares of land from the Ethiopian government for agricultural development. Critics says these projects have displaced traditional farmers and subsistence crops.

ADM's New Frontiers: Palm Oil Deforestation and Child Labor
by Charlie Cray, Special to CorpWatchMay 18th, 2010ADM has moved beyond the days of blatant price-fixing that landed its top execs behind bars. But the company's forays into new global agricultural markets bring charges of complicity in forced child labor and rampant deforestation. Critics assert that the conglomerate's embrace of self- regulation and voluntary guidelines is but a cynical ploy to deter effective reform.